The billionaire founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Jack Ma, has reappeared this Tuesday in a virtual meeting with rural teachers after months without knowing his whereabouts, time in which the relationship between PekÃn and the business group he created.
In the video, posted on the newspaper portal Tianmu News, published in his native province (Zhejiang, in the east of China), Ma greets a hundred rural teachers from the Asian country who have been selected for an award and tells them that “when the epidemic is over, we will meet again.”
Although his speech does not make any mention of his situation, it does mention that during “the last six months” -that is, a period that includes the time in which he has been away from the spotlight- he has remained active participating in the process of selection of teachers for the award he presented.
Disappeared after clashing with the Chinese Government
Ma had not appeared in public since the end of October 2020 and the international press had made conjectures about his whereabouts, even using the term “disappeared” after the friction he had with the Chinese government, which forced the suspension in November of the IPO of its financial technology Ant Group, which was going to star in the largest public offering in history.
In his last public appearance, days before the derailment of Ant’s IPO, Ma had made a very critical speech about Beijing’s strategy of minimizing risks in the financial system and with traditional banks, which he ensured would be they continue to operate as “pawnshops”.
The rumors grew in November after Ma did not serve as a judge on the television show The heroes of business in Africa, founded by himself and in which he was replaced by another director of Alibaba.
Meanwhile, the official media maintained a coordinated silence for weeks that coincided with reports of alleged orders from Beijing not to give more media coverage to the antitrust investigation recently opened against the group.
A “low profile”
Last week, sources familiar with the situation had explained to Efe that Ma was trying to keep a “low profile” and that he was “fine”, while qualifying the rumors that he had been arrested or that the authorities had prohibited him leave the country of “unfounded”.
Following Ma’s reappearance, Alibaba’s shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rose 8.35% today after 2:00 pm local time (7:00 GMT) after plummeting more than 18% since last trading. the businessman appeared publicly.
According to the list of billionaires compiled by Bloomberg, Ma is no longer the richest man in China since his fortune would have been reduced by about 10 billion dollars to 52.9 billion, now ranking fourth on that list behind the bosses of the beverage company Nongfu Spring and of the technological Tencent and Pinduoduo, rivals of Alibaba.
Ma left the presidency of Alibaba in 2019 – 20 years after its founding – and does not hold any executive position at Ant, although he is a majority shareholder in Ant.
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